There was once this fellow named Murphy who made up a law. It seems that in Murphy's world anything that could go wrong did go wrong. It also seems that Murphy had to work hard to make sure that things actually went wrong. Then Murphy moved to Mexico.
In his pre-Hispanic existence, Murphy had been the head of something or other and a very respected and important personage. Unfortunately, when Murphy searched the web for information on living in Mexico, he never came across the page that explained that retiring and crossing the border into a simpler lifestyle carries an implied demotion to regular person. Murphy didn't get promoted at the border; God knows he had already been promoted enough. What he didn't realize was that he was actually starting over - at the bottom. This was an unplanned turn of events and ever so frustrating. Only a few short weeks before, Murphy had been consulted on the most earth shaking of events. Now, no one even cared if he had an opinion much less what it was. And so it was that he had to work harder than ever before to make sure that things went wrong.
When he bought his new home in a gated community, everyone accepted him for a regular person. It took a while, but Murphy eventually discovered that he could get even with all the lesser entities living in Paradise Lost Condos if he didn't pay the condo fees. He could make them even madder if he lobbied others to join his cause. It would have been much simpler to pay the dues, but then nothing would have gone wrong and Murphy had reacquired a status of importance on some level, at least.
As the dues accumulated, certain community services at the Paradise Lost Condos such as trash pick up and security began to experience cash flow difficulties. This event attracted the attention of the local Mexican government. A representative came to pay his respects to the Paradise Lost Condos: Home Owners' Association. The President of the HA had to explain that one of the members had decided to withhold payments for unknown reasons and that had, in turn, caused other problems. The local government official listened politely, took notes, and then returned to his office. A few weeks later he returned and brought someone with the necessary tools to disconnect Murphy's water.
You see, Mexican law provides for intervention, some might even say that Mexican law insists on intervention, even on behalf of certain Home Owners' Associations but ole Murphy wasn't exactly cognizant of this fact. But things were definitely going wrong. Murphy was ecstatic; He was in his element. Who says you can't fight city hall? Murphy hired a lawyer and promptly placed a demanda against the local government. Now things really started to go wrong.
When the demanda reached city hall it got a few more people interested in Murphy's personage. Some people over there were perhaps a bit more sensitive than Murphy had figured. They placed a lien on Murphy's house. The last we heard, Murphy was back in the states running a 7/11 and working with two Pakistani gentlemen who are trying their best to learn English. I guess Murphy's Law has been proven again.
The moral of this story: The Mexican populace generally frowns on non-conformity and there are a great number of remedies, which the various government agencies can bring to bear on slow learners.
It might be a good idea for folks contemplating retirement to plan on having a different lifestyle. Part of that lifestyle includes being a regular person. No one is interested in what we did before Mexico and is even less interested in how important we were way back when. Here in Mexico Lindo foreign personages are welcome but are expected to fall in step with Mexican customs. One of those customs is to pay your dues.
